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Oct 21, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Wedding episodes often threaten to go "very special." Happily, tonight's "Bones" (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) walks down the aisle and remains true to the quirks of the characters who have made the show uniquely popular.

Wedding episodes often threaten to go "very special." Happily, tonight's "Bones" (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) walks down the aisle and remains true to the quirks of the characters who have made the show uniquely popular.

Like Jim Parsons' Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory," Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) has always operated several clicks into the bandwidth of autism or Asperger's syndrome. With all of her beauty and brilliance, she lacks the ability to "read" people, unless of course, they arrive as bodies lying on the slab of her laboratory. She's short on social graces. So we'd hardly expect her to navigate well through the choppy waters of wedding planning or the contrived "girly girl" joys of gown buying, hairdos, endless makeup and mani-pedi parties.

Not to give too much away, but most of tonight's episode is devoted to getting her to the church on time, and keeping her from retreating into the details of a new case, which happens to concern a 35-year-old murder victim who may have been killed because of her thoughts on a poet dead for a century and a half.

Of course, none of this goes smoothly. Perhaps the most telling moment is when the bride-to-be tries to explain to some of her colleagues why they weren't initially invited to her wedding. It's a bit like Mr. Spock meets Miss Manners in a morgue — and perfectly in keeping with her character.

— The documentary "Life According to Sam" (9 p.m., HBO) follows the family of a child afflicted with progeria, an exceedingly rare disease that radically accelerates the aging process, affecting fewer than 250 people worldwide. Most people born with progeria die of a stroke or heart attack by adolescence. Sam has just turned 17 and enjoys life as a high school student. "Sam" also documents his parents, who are both doctors, and their efforts to understand, treat and eradicate the disease.

— Narrated by actor Mike Farrell, the documentary "Unlikely Friends" (9 p.m., ID, TV-14) follows five families devastated by violence who have reached out to forgive and even befriend the perpetrators.

— "Independent Lens" (10 p.m., PBS, TV-PG) presents the documentary "The Waiting Room/Let Me Down Easy," chronicling those waiting for care in an Oakland, Calif., emergency room that is the primary care facility for roughly a quarter-million patients.

— The brainchild of Sean Combs, the new cable network Revolt TV will launch today in select markets. Revolt plans to be a home for music videos, much the way MTV and VH1 were before they devolved into reality TV programming.